Identifying a historic shoreline using fine-scale slope variation

Abstract

[author abstract] A rise of just one meter of sea level rise could displace millions of people and cause billions of dollars of damage. This research identifies a historic submerged shoreline along the continental shelf of Vancouver Island, Canada. This historic shoreline was established during a glacial maximum period and subsequent shorelines were formed due to the change in sea level throughout the period of glacial melt beginning ~14,300 years ago. To identify the historic shoreline, data was collected using a Konsberg EM302 multibeam echosounder on 27 January 2013 aboard the R/V Thomas G Thompson. Using slope variation along the area examined as a historic shoreline and bathymetric images of depth, we are now able to investigate the rate of sea level change through direct observations of historical shorelines.